Device for sealing pipe-joints



(No Model.)

- J. A. MGCORMIGK.

DEVICE POR SEALING PIPE JOINTSl No. 329,405. Patented Oct. 27, 1885.

N, FErEaS. Pnawuihoghphsr. wanhingmn. D. C,

UNITED STATES PATENT GEEICE.

JUNIUS A. MCCORMICK, OF PITTSBIIRG, PENNSYLVANIA.

DEVICE FOR SEALING PIPE-JOINTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 329,405, dated October 27, 1885.

Application tiled August 17, 1885. Serial No. 174,555. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JUNIUs A. MoCoRMroK, acitizen of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State 0f Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Sealing Pipe-Joints; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a safety device applicable to the joints of gasmains, which, through changes of temperature, displacement, or other cause, are liable to become sources of leakage, which, if permitted to escape, is dangerous to life and property.

The object of my invent-ion is to provide an independent device which can be applied to any of the usual or known forms of coupling or joint, and whereby the leakage of gas is absolutely prevented from escaping beyond the confines of such device. The invention consists in the provision of a box, sleeve, or shell, in one or more parts, adapted to be clamped or tted around the pipe-coupling, and provided with a hydraulic or liquid seal, whose sealing influence is enhanced by the very pressure which causes the leakage of ordinary couplings.

Theinvention further consists in the specific means of effecting a liquid seal of such character.

It further consists in the arrangement and combination of devices, substantially as hereinafter fully described and claimed.

More particularly my invention is as follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a longitudinal section illustrating my invention as applied to an ordinary screw-sleeve pipe coupling or joint. Fig. 2 is a similar View, showing the invention as applied to another form of pipecoupling usually adapted for bowl-ended castiron pipe. Fig. 3 is a modified form of the device shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a transverse section of Fig. 3 on line x x.

In Fig. 1, A A are two sections of pipe coupled together in the ordinary manner by a screw-threaded sleeve, B. Around the coupling thus formed I clamp the two-part casting C, provided with lateral flanges a and clamping-bolts b, as in Fig. 4. The casting C has suitable packing-recesses, as at d, for the reception of appropriate packing, and has also the annular sealing-chamber E, of such length and extent as to embrace every part of the coupling A B where a leak is apt to occur. This requirement is sufficiently met by having the chamberE in this case slightlylonger than the coupling-sleeve B. Casting C is shaped with a lling-hole, f, to which is fitted a suitable plug, h. I prefer to lay a strip of packing, i, between the adjacent lateral flanges, a, of the protector casing C, and then clamp them tightly around the pipes A, as stated. I then pack the recesses d properly,after which I pour into the chamber E throughf a quantity of oil or other liquid sufficient to entirely surround the coupling, but leaving an airchamber above the saine, and then insert the plug h to close all egress. Now, if leakage occur at the joint, the gas leaking at the threads or through the pores of the defective sleeve, such gas will rise through the sealing-liquid and become stored in the air chamber, until finally the pressure of the gas downwardly on the sealing-liquid will counterbalance the pressure within the pipes A, and then no further leakage will occur so long as the conditions of equilibrium remain unchanged. The equilibrium may be brought about at once by the application of a small leakage-branch, k, leading from the interior of the coupling to the top of the sealing-liquid, as in Fig. l. If found t0 evaporate, the sealing-liquid may be readily replenished by opening the plug h, for which purpose, where the branch k is in use, it is desirable to provide the latterwith a stop-cock, m.

The effect of the whole device is such that the very effort of the gas to escape produces a corresponding effort of the liquid to effect a tighter seal.

In Fig. 2 I show the invention applied to the pipe-and-bowl form of coupling. In this case it is so shaped as to accommodate the bowl, as shown; and in this case, also, the leakage-branch 7c may be adopted. In this form of protector the sealing-chamber is short and is located entirely in the vicinity of the usually packed space between the bowl of one pipe and the adjacent end of its fellow;

IOO

but in Fig. 3 the sealing-chamber and sealingliqud therein extend entirely over the joint, as in Fig. 1.

The invention is by no means conned to use as a protector for any special form of coupling, but may be with equal advantage applied to any-style of coupling, not excepting a flangecoupling.

I illustrate t'wo of the leading forms of couplings, merely to makeclear the application of my invention.

I am aware that it is not new, broadly, to provide a pipe-joint with a liquid seal, as I have shown such in Letters Patent No. 318, 009, granted to me May 19, 1885 3 but the invention therein shown and described contemplated the employment of a casing which would serve'at the same time as a coupling for the adjacent pipe ends and as a vessel for containing the liquid' matter through Whose medium a tight sealing of the joint is effected. fore tol be understood that the present inven tion comprises a device which is primarily intended tobe applied toand to surround the ends-of pipes which have already beenjoined together' by some form of coupling, and it Will benoticedI that the present invention is adapted to be applied to joints of pipes already made and sealed in the ordinary manner.

Having fully described my invention, I claiml. In a device for sealing pipe-joints, the combination, with the adjoining sections of I Wish it therepipe and the joint thereof, of a casing consist/ing. of a single annular chamber surrounding said jointand containing a liquid, and an opening for the introduction of the liquid into the casing, said opening being tightly closed after the liquid has been introduced, whereby if there be any leakage of gas into the casing the pressure of the same upon the liquid will eventually equal the pressure within the pipe, substantially as described.

2. In a device for sealing pipe-joints, the combination, with two sections of pipe and the joint thereof, of a casing comprising a single annular chamber entirely surrounding the point ofjuncture or seam ofthe pipe-joint, and provided with a suitable orice for the introduction of a liquid to said chamber, and an escape-pipe opening from said chamber into the interior of the pipe,substantially as described. f

3. The combination, with two sections of pipe and a joint securing said sections together, of a casing having a single annular chamber surrounding all the seams cf said joint, a liquid substance contained in said chamber, and an air-space at the top of said substance for the reception of gas escaping from the pipe, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.-

.IUNIUS A. MOGORMICK.

Witnesses: f

JOHN F. ATcHEsoN, Jos. B. CoNNoLLY. 

